Mark Patterson’s publicity troubles

Mark Patterson, of MatlinPatterson, is having his lawyers run around all manner of blogs trying to get them to remove a story originally printed — and possibly to be printed again — in the Daily Telegraph. At this point, all the unhelpful publicity that’s resulting is making it seem as though he would have been better off just ignoring the original article. But while he’s in the news, let’s not forget that he’s not only being accused of calling the TARP a “sham” and a gift to speculators. He’s also the chap who seems to be doing end-runs around bank-ownership rules which seem to be designed to violate the spirit if not the letter of regulations barring private-equity shops from owning banks. Since he’s in the public eye, perhaps now is a good time to start investigating that side of things more closely?